Sharif's 'dehati aurat' comment causes outrage, trends on Twitter

Hours ahead of his first one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh since  he took over as Pakistan’s prime minister,  Nawaz Sharif is believed to have made a disparaging comment about his Indian counterpart, calling the 80-year-old Singh, widely acknowledged as a statesman-like figure in the international community, a “dehati aurat”. The comment, loosely translating as ‘village crone’, was made in response to Singh discussing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism with President Barack Obama. The remarks are believed to have been made during an off-the-record briefing to Geo TV’s Hamid Mir and NDTV’s Barkha Dutt. Hamid Mir highlighted the comment to the channel’s news anchor. Users can view a YouTube link of the video here. [caption id=“attachment_1140285” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Manmohan Singh at the UN. PTI[/caption] Predictably, Twitter has exploded after this revelation and the phrase was trending on Twitter early Sunday morning. While some were wondering why Nawaz Sharif would make such a tasteless comment, even if it was off the record, others felt that this was yet another sign of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s weakness that anyone could mock him. Here are a select few twitter reactions: